What You Need to Know Before Watching the New Doctor Who

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What You Need to Know Before Watching the New Doctor Who

BBC

It's that time again. Tomorrow doesn't just mark the arrival of a new season of Doctor Who, it also sees the arrival of a whole new Doctor as well. With each new regeneration comes that feeling of anxiety that's all too familiar to longtime fans: What will this Doctor be like? Will I miss [Insert Previous Doctor of Choice] too much to be able to enjoy the show now? Is this when everything falls apart?!

Ahead of the first episode of Peter Capaldi's reign as everyone's favorite Time Lord, we'd like to remind you: It'll all be OK—and maybe even better than OK, depending on your tastes. After all, you already went through this when Christopher Eccleston was replaced by David Tennant, and then again when Tennant was replaced by Matt Smith, and all of those changes worked out just fine. Still, if that isn't comfort enough for you, let us assist. Here are six things you should know to prepare you for Doctor Who Season 8.

The Twelfth Doctor May Not Be All That Cuddly

Much has been made in the promos for the new season about the new Doctor being "colder" and "darker" than the sweet whirligigs that we've seen in recent years. There was even a trailer in which the Doctor asked, "Am I a good man, Clara?" The inference is clear: Maybe this Doctor is the one where we finally discover that he's actually quite alien and scary after all.

That's fine for a teaser, but let's be serious for a second: Peter Capaldi is not going to be The Scary, Dark Doctor. Oh, sure; he's likely going to be more easily annoyed than other incarnations of the character because Capaldi does annoyance oh so well—a clip released from the new season where Capaldi says Clara "cares so I don't have to" would suggest as much. But really, this is Doctor Who. As the 50th anniversary episode made clear, this is a show about a hero who exists to heal and make everything better. He may not be as cuddly as Matt Smith—really, who is?—but the Doctor will never be a genuinely upsetting bad guy. Even John Hurt's "War Doctor" was pretty damn adorable when it came right down to it.

A New Doctor Doesn't Mean There Will Be No Familiar Faces

As has become a tradition in Who, even if the Doctor himself is brand new, there are many other characters making return appearances to provide comfort. In addition to Jenna-Louise Coleman's Clara coming back as companion this season (although she's rumored to be leaving by the Christmas Special), fans will also be treated to appearances by Madame Vastra, Strax, and Jenny in the very first episode just to reassure nervous Whovians that it's still the show they watched last year.

The season also has the traditional Dalek appearance ("Into the Dalek," the second episode), more Cybermen, and even the return of UNIT's Kate Stewart and Osgood from last year's 50th anniversary special. It'll be like nothing has changed at all! Also, if you've been wondering what Osgood's been up to since you last saw her, apparently the answer is "Paying too much attention to how many people follow the Doctor Who Twitter account."

Season 8 Will Have Shrinking, Robots, and Kids (But Probably Not Shrinking Robot Kids)

Strange but true: Two separate episodes will center around shrinking elements in the eighth season, with what we're putting down to zeitgeist-jumping in advance of Marvel's Ant-Man next year. Season 8 is also filled with cybernetic threats (The Daleks, the Cybermen, and robots in Ye Olde England that trouble Robin Hood) and stories based around Coal Hill School, Clara's new place of employment as glimpsed ever-so-briefly in the 50th anniversary episode. The fairytale era of the Eleventh Doctor may be over, but if viewers were hoping to see less kids in the show this year, it's looking like they may be disappointed.

This Season Will Have Much More Moffat

Showrunner Steven Moffat has proven to be a divisive force in Who fandom, with the writer being accused of sexism, creating overly-complicated plots that never end, and generally ruining the show in a multitude of ways. We don't buy into those criticisms for the most part—for all Moffat's flaws (and he has many), he's taken the show in a lot of interesting directions and thankfully moved away from the sentiment and populism that overwhelmed the last couple of years—but no matter which side of the issue you're on, one thing is for sure: This new year may be the most Moffat-y Doctor Who yet.

Moffat is credited as a writer on seven of the 12 episodes of Season 8, by far the highest number of episodes for him in any single year to date. In addition to the four episodes he wrotes solo ("Deep Breath," "Listen," "Dark Water" and "Death in Heaven"), he's also credited as a co-writer on three ("Into the Dalek," "Time Heist," and "The Caretaker").

Part of this is likely to be Moffat stepping in to ensure the portrayal of the new Doctor is consistent, of course, but it may also bring a welcome amount of consistency back to the series as a whole. While Russell T. Davies was showrunner, he consistently rewrote other people's scripts to ensure an even tone across each year (the wonderful The Writer's Tale expands on the behind-the-scenes goings-on of Davies' tenure on the show, and is highly recommended), whereas Moffat has been described as being more hands-off—something that was arguably noticeable in the episodes themselves. This year, it seems, things will be different.

For those who've come to consider Moffat's very name to be a potential trigger warning, this means that you might want to take a deep breath before diving into this new season with "Deep Breath." (See what we did there?) The rest of us ... well, we can't really use "Geronimo!" as a catchphrase now that Matt Smith has gone, so let's just tune in on Saturday and find out which catchphrases we should be picking up instead.

It'll Help to Watch Some Old Episodes to Refresh Your Memory

There are a number of episodes you might want to revisit before Saturday's premiere, for reasons of both continuity and consistency. Here are the essential ones.

The 2005 Christmas Special "The Christmas Invasion" Enjoy the sight of David Tennant as the newly-reincarnated Doctor coming to terms with his new body and explaining the rules of reincarnation for newcomers while he's at it.

Season 3: Episodes 11, 12, and 13 "Utopia," "The Sound of Drums," and "Last of the Time Lords" Another reincarnation story, but it's not the Doctor's. Instead, it's his opposite number—the Master—who goes through the change in this three-part story, which also sets up a lot of mythology about the Doctor being the last of his race—something that becomes very important later on.

The 2009 Christmas Special/2010 New Year's Special "The End of Time (Parts 1 & 2)" "The End of Time" brought back the Master and some more Time Lords in a massively over-the-top epic that brought David Tennant's time as the Doctor to a close, ending with the very first appearance of Matt Smith in the role.

Season 5: Episode 1, "The Eleventh Hour" Matt Smith's first full episode as the Doctor, and a good primer on both Doctor Who mythology as a whole and Steven Moffat's take on regeneration in particular. Expect to see at least one callback to this episode in "Deep Breath."

The 2013 50th Anniversary Special "The Day of the Doctor" Three different incarnations of the Doctor meet up, giving the audience the chance to see the subtle differences between them (and also the similarities). Also, the thread about the Doctor being the last of the Time Lords gets paid off, setting up a potential new direction for the future. All this and the first appearance of Peter Capaldi's Doctor too!

The 2013 Christmas Special "The Time of the Doctor" This is Matt Smith's final episode as the Doctor. It offers up even more on whether or not the Time Lords are out there—spoiler, they are—and also ties up some loose ends from all the way back in "The Eleventh Hour," three years earlier. The rules of the Doctor's regenerations are arguably rewritten here, so this is an important episode for many reasons, and not just because it properly introduces Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor.